academic exchange

Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden will deliver remarks on 100,000 Strong in the Americas on Friday, January 17, 2014, at 2:45 p.m. at the Department of State. The event will also feature remarks by Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta S. Jacobson, and Special Advisor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

In our book, First Globals: Understanding, Managing, and Unleashing the Potential of Our Millennial Generation, Joan Snyder Kuhl and I present a number of prescriptions for welcoming Millennials into the workforce. One of my favorites involves the creation of a First Globals Technology Corps, a practical and cost-efficient way of utilizing the special skills of this mobile and techno-savvy age cohort, while at the same time, allowing them to make a real difference in the world.

On the sad occasion of Nelson Mandela’s death, it’s worth recalling his words on languages: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” I read that quote on a poster on the wall at the Beijing Language and Cultural University on a smoggy morning this September – BLCU is one of the British Council’s longest standing and biggest partners in China.

The United States and China will hold their fourth Consultation on People-to-People Exchange (CPE) in Washington, DC on November 21, 2013. CPE is a gathering of high-level officials and members of civil society to bolster both diplomacy and soft power in an effort to strengthen U.S.-China relations. At the 2010 inaugural session, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "[The U.S.-China relationship] must extend beyond the halls of governments to our homes, businesses, and schools.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ attended the opening of a Turkish school in Cameroon, established by the Aziz Mahmut Hüdayi Foundation, on Saturday. On the second day of his visit to Cameroon, Bozdağ participated in the opening ceremony of the school, which is in the city of Maroua.

When outspoken economics professor Xia Yeliang was dismissed by Peking University (PKU) last month, 136 faculty members at Wellesley College, an elite all-women's school outside Boston, took it personally. They had reason to believe Professor Xia had been fired for his political opinions. And since Wellesley had recently signed a partnership with PKU, the latest in a flood of US universities to set up bridgeheads in China, they figured that made Xia a colleague of theirs.

In its drive to double the number of Japanese youths studying abroad by 2020, the education ministry has launched a campaign involving the private sector, which is eager to hire more graduates with overseas experience. Under the campaign titled “Tobitate! Ryugaku Japan,' the ministry in cooperation with business people, athletes and artists, will stage a series of promotional activities to encourage more young people to seek out educational opportunities in other countries.

Despite efforts to reduce the cost of a college degree, the price tag remains unthinkable for many. And it’s not just the cost of tuition, but also the extras like spending a year, a semester or even a summer in a foreign country. At a time when it seems as if every American college and university has a study abroad program or has agreements with institutions that offer the experience, one has to wonder: Is it worth it?